Sunday, August 07, 2011

Baby Jesus with Two Lesbians: Methodist Nativity

Rev. Linda Butler of the pro-homosexual St. Timothy's United Methodist Church in Cedar Falls, Iowa says that since the Virgin Mary was Jesus' mother, and Joseph wasn't the father, a pair of lesbian mothers is just as biblical.

[St. Timothy's United Methodist Church] is a member of the Reconciling Ministry Network, which works to mobilize United Methodists to more fully include in church life people of all sexual orientations and gender identities.

At St. Timothys, members aren't waiting on changes in the Book of Discipline to act on their beliefs. At Christmas-time, the church asks a couple with a young child to represent the Holy Family in a nativity scene. This time, the starring roles went to a lesbian couple and their child, Butler said.

"It's not very groundbreaking at all to use the youngest baby in the congregation to play the role of Jesus. The parents just happened to be two women," said Rev. Linda Butler, pastor of St. Timothy's United Methodist Church in Cedar Falls, Iowa. "They were playing the role of the Holy Family, not necessarily Mary and Joseph. We never referred to the moms as Mary and Joseph. We referred to them as the Holy Family."

"And when the Holy Family arrived, it was two women with their baby," she said. "What we emphasized was that this was two parents, and this is our baby and this our story. They're two moms, but it doesn't stand out."

Butler added, "It does fit so well biblically," noting that Jesus had a human mother, but Joseph was not the Savior's actual father.

"If He was born of a virgin, then Joseph is not the father," Butler said. "He's not part of the conception."

"In the midst of this Christmas joy," she said from the pulpit, "when God appears to us in human form, the gospel reading reminds us ... we have to shout at church actions ... that do not affirm God's holy work among lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. We have to shout [that] the government shifts money away from the prevention of AIDS and HIV to abstinence-only policies."